Monthly Archives: September 2015

A Look Inside The BlackHouse Hospitality Group

Written by Allison Levine on September 29, 2015

Lifestyle Food Cocktails Wine

This post originally appeared on FoodableTV.com

Chef Tin Vuong is a visionary. He began as the Executive Sous Chef at the St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Bay where he worked for five years before moving on to Director of Culinary Operations at Sapphire in Laguna Beach. With his vast hotel experience, in January 2012, Vuong joined the restaurant Abigaile in Hermosa Beach as Executive Chef and BlackHouse Hospitality, a Los Angeles-based restaurant and hospitality group, was born.

The Team

The team behind BlackHouse Hospitality is Chef/Owner Tin Vuong, Managing Partner Jed Sanford and Director of Operations Scott Young. Each restaurant within the group has its own identity and is run by a different Executive Chef, Sous Chef and General Manager. Chef Vuong and his team create the ideas for the menu, plating, service protocol and menu design and layout. They then find the chef who fits that vision. For the first three months of every restaurant opening, Chef Vuong and the Executive Chef work very closely together. The Executive Chefs then run the kitchens as their own.

Location

BlackHouse Hospitality Group is centralized in the South Bay but with expansions to Culver City and Downtown LA, they are not limited as to where they open restaurants. Director of Operations Scott Young explained that the “vision is to find a good location that is feasible financially.” Once a location is found, the restaurant concept is envisioned within the group. “The key is to fit a niche within a neighborhood and to play to our strengths,” Young continued.

The Restaurants

BlackHouse Hospitality consists of five very different restaurants. After Abigaile opened in 2012, Wildcraft opened in Culver City in July 2012, followed by Little Sister in Manhattan Beach in July 2013. Six months later, in January 2014, Dia de Campo opened in Hermosa Beach. This was followed by Steak and Whisky, also in Hermosa Beach, which opened in February 2015. The newest restaurant is Little Sister in Downtown LA, which will be opened in fall 2015.

Abigaile

Executive Chef Jorge Valines

Abigaile is a global gastropub serving New World American cuisine. The large space with a high ceiling was previously a church and then the rehearsal space of the band Black Flag. Perched on a hill just above Hermosa Avenue, the outdoor patio offers a view of the ocean and inside is an on-premise brewery.

Steak and Whisky

Executive Chef John Shaw

Located just around the corner from Abigaile, Steak and Whisky is the first high-end steakhouse in the South Bay that is not an existing chain restaurant. With exposed brick, leather banquets and a 1960’s themed tile floor, the restaurant is rustic and sexy but also quintessential beach-town with guests in casual shorts and t-shirts. The five seats around the gray marbled front bar are the centerpiece of the restaurant which offers 125 whiskies and more than 200 wine options.

Dia de Campo

Executive Chef Ken Johnson

On Hermosa Avenue, a few more steps from Steak and Whiskey, is the colorful and inviting Dia de Campo. This restaurant features a seafood-centric, Baja influenced menu of small plates great to share with friends. Dia de Campo features more than 100 tequilas and mezcals.

Little Sister

Executive Chef Michael Segerstrom

Located a few miles north in Manhattan Beach, Little Sister is Chef Vuong’s passion project. A 50-seat restaurant, Little Sister features Southeast Asian cuisine and feels more like dining at Chef Vuong’s home.

Wildcraft

Executive Chef Bryant Wigger

The first restaurant in the group that is outside of the South Bay, Wildcraft is a modern Italian tavern in the heart of Culver City. Inside it is mid-century modern but the outdoor patio is casual and friendly, perfect to watch the passersby as pizzas and meats come from the wood-burning oven. The wine list at Wildcraft is focused on California and Italian producers and the cocktails are seasonally driven.

Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails

The wine and beverage programs are unique to the restaurants and the area. Director of Operations Scott Young develops the wine and beverage programs and the service model behind each restaurant. Young has made sure that management across all restaurants has passed the WSET Level 2 exam. The wine lists are different so that they do not compete with each other on price, especially in Hermosa Beach when three of the restaurants are in walking distance of each other.

Director of Beverage Dave Keenan oversees the cocktail programs at each restaurant. With different cuisines, the cocktails creatively match the menus – fresh seasonal drinks at Wildcraft to tequila cocktails at Dia de Campo.

What’s Next

A second location of Little Sister is opening in Downtown Los Angeles in fall 2015. This is the first duplicate restaurant for the BlackHouse Hospitality Group but the menu will vary slightly from the Manhattan Beach menu. The revitalization of Downtown LA is filled with adventurous diners which allows Little Sister to offer unique ingredients and bolder flavors. The Downtown location will also serve breakfast and lunch daily, catering to a neighborhood that requires take out and power lunch locales.

BlackHouse Hospitality Group is also working on two new projects. One project is slated for the end of 2015 in Redondo Beach and another in early 2016 in Huntington Beach. With these new locations, BlackHouse Hospitality Group will have connected all of the South Bay beach cities together.

Having a background in hotels, Chef Vuong has an ability to see both the big picture and the small picture. As Young expressed, “We are a business at the end of the day. His ability to dive down deeper into the financial health of a business is very beneficial.” With five different concepts, and more on the way, BlackHouse Hospitality Group is very streamlined while managing the various needs of each concept. They are making everything they can in-house and maintain a high quality throughout each restaurant while keeping the ideas fresh and independent of one another. Young concluded, “We are doing what we think we are best at. We put out a product that we think is great and good for each neighborhood. This is what we are passionate about.”

Rodney Strong releases three single-vineyard cabs

Written by Allison Levine on September 25, 2015

Wine

Rodney Strong Vineyards recently hosted a dinner in the heart of the Rockaway Vineyard to celebrate the release of three single vineyard cabernet sauvignons from the Alexander Valley. Overlooking the vineyard, guests dined on food by Chef Tara Wachtel while enjoying the wines of Rodney Strong with owner Tom Klein, winemakers Rick Sayre and Greg Morthole and grower relations’ manager Ryan Decker.

Rodney Strong Vineyards, established in 1959 by dancer Rod Strong and purchased by the Klein family in 1989, owns 12 estate vineyards in Sonoma Country. Three of the vineyards, featured at the event, are from the Alexander Valley.

Alexander Valley, located at the northern end of Sonoma County, 22 miles long and adjacent to the Russian River, has 15,000 acres are planted on hillsides to the east and west. Best known for growing Bordeaux varietals, the Alexander Valley is one of the warmer regions in Sonoma County. The region received its AVA status in 1984. Read More +

Expo Milano 2015: Feeding The Planet, Energy for Life

Written by Allison Levine on September 23, 2015

Lifestyle Food

This post originally appeared on FoodableTV.com

Expo Milano 2015

Every five years, a world exposition takes place somewhere around the world. This year, from May 1st – October 31, 2015, Milan, Italy, is home to the World Expo. Focused on a theme of global importance each year, the theme of Expo Milano 2015 is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. There may be no other singular issue of importance or relevance today as we focus more on sustainability.

According to the Expo Milano website, the idea behind the theme of 2015 is that it “provides an opportunity to reflect upon, and seek solutions to, the contradictions of our world. On the one hand, there are still the hungry (approximately 870 million people were undernourished in the period 2010-2012) and, on the other, there are those who die from ailments linked to poor nutrition or too much food (approximately 2.8 million deaths from diseases related to obesity or to being overweight in the same period). In addition, about 1.3 billion tons of foods are wasted every year. For these reasons, we need to make conscious political choices, develop sustainable lifestyles, and use the best technology to create a balance between the availability and the consumption of resources.”

We need to take care of where we live and every country is trying to take care of their environment and their people. With over 60 pavilions from over 130 participating countries, each participating country was encouraged to interpret the theme and create unique experiences for visitors. The Expo Milano website lists three key points that countries should strive to increase awareness of:

• The right to food that is healthy, safe and sufficient
• The environmental, social and economic sustainability of the food chain
• The preservation of taste and of food culture

The entire Expo Milano covers almost 250 acres (1 million square feet). It is inspired by an ancient Roman city with two perpendicular roads, Decumano (aka World Avenue) and Cardo, intersecting at Piazza Italia. Decumano is lined by unique pavilions designed by each country, using sustainable and recyclable materials. Each pavilion uses low-impact energy sources and were built with the idea to be temporary and pulled down after the Expo.

As visitors wander from pavilion to pavilion, there are thematic clusters stationed throughout the exposition area that bring together communities by a common theme or food group. The nine clusters are dedicated to various themes: Rice, Cocoa and Chocolate, Coffee, Fruits and Legumes, Spices, Cereals and Tubers, Bio-Mediterraneum, Island Sea and Food, and Arid Zones. Within each cluster, different countries are brought together around the common theme and create an experience that immerses visitors into it.

Rice: Abundance and Security

According to the Expo Milano website, rice is one of the world’s most important and widely consumed food staples that feeds almost half of the world’s population. Rice can be grown almost anywhere and is a primary source of nourishment. Once dried, it has a long shelf life. The countries represented in the Rice Cluster are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone. Through reflective mirrors, a rural setting is created featuring different varieties of rice growing in paddy fields.

Fact: A key element in many cuisines, rice has been eaten by people for more than 10,000 years, according to Expo Milano.

Cocoa and Chocolate: The Food of Gods

The Cacao cluster is set up like a real jungle with cacao trees in a warm and humid atmosphere. Countries represented are Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Cuba, Gabon, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe. Cacao has been used as currency and was a key component in the Mayan and Aztec cultures. According to research presented on the Expo Milano website, there are more than 30 emerging countries that sustain their countries on cacao crops.

Fact: The Expo Milano states that “90% of the cocoa beans are grown in developing countries, but only 29% of the cocoa powder and 4% of the chocolate are processed locally.”

Coffee: The Engine of Ideas

Set up like a forest with tropical trees, the countries that belong to the coffee cluster are Burundi, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Yemen and Timor-Lest.

Fact: The Expo Milano website estimates that coffee “is a source of income for more than 25 million families in 80 producing countries.”

Fruits and Legumes

Fruits and legumes are essential in a healthy and nutritious diet. At the Expo, this cluster features a real orchard of fruit trees. Countries belonging to this cluster are Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and Zambia.

Fact: According to the United Nations, “half of the global production of fruits and legumes is lost or wasted.”

Spices: The World of Spices

Spices are a key ingredient in recipes around the world. Spices are used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. Spices connected distant countries along the spice route, enhancing commerce. The cluster, consisting of Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, United Republic of Tanzania and Vanuatu, offers a journey of the senses through colors, flavors and aromas.

Fact: According to research presented on the Expo Milano website, the spice trade is growing with production increasing over 4% and trade increasing 6% over the last 10 years.

Cereals and Tubers: Old and New Crops

The most common crops around the world, the Expo Milano website estimates that there are over 10,000 varieties of cereals and tubers but only a few are cultivated today. The cluster, consisting of Bolivia, Congo, Haiti, Mozambique, Togo, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, demonstrates different examples of land cultivation. Inexpensive but nutritious, cereals are the staple diet and main source of calories for many of the world’s population and the Expo website suggests that focusing on neglected varieties of cereals and tubers could assist with the increasing global demand for food.

Fact: Wheat, rice, maize, millet and sorghum make up 60% of the world’s energy intake, according to research presented on the Expo Milano website.

In addition to the clusters, each country has embraced a different theme that best represents their country. The USA Pavilion theme is American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet. The pavilion highlights America’s food history, from farm to table, as well as the utilization of advanced technology. The USA Pavilion includes the world’s largest vertical farm (9,250 square feet) along the outside of the building and which grows 42 different varieties of vegetables, grains and herbs. Inside, the exhibits address the questions about how America will contribute to “feed[ing] the more than 9 billion people expected to inhabit the Earth by the year 2050.”

Expo Milano takes place May 1st thru October 31st, 2015. But whether or not you visit the expo, it is time to imagine a better future and to see how countries around the world are creating solutions to take care of the Earth in a healthy and sustainable way.